Midnight Science Books Catalog

Updated 11-12-2014, Xtal Set Society, Inc

Why call it MidnightScience Books? The Xtal Set Society members are kind of a crazy bunch, and they like to experiment with making radios out of almost anything, like catfood cans, Pepsi bottles, matchboxes, propane torches, oatmeal boxes, and Ban roll-on bottles. True experimenters like this — tinkering in their basements into the wee hours of the morning — need a bookstore of their own. Do you hate digging through all those self-help and cooking books at the big chain bookstores? You've found the right place!

This small booklet by J.K. Fenton is written in easy to understand language for the true beginner to our wonderful hobby. It has pictures and symbols for basic parts and gives the reader basic information to get started with that first building project. 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 with 15 pages CAT#XBGN $2.95.

Building Your First Crystal Radio
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Price: $2.95

Volume I and II of the Society Newsletter

Don't miss out on these great Originals! Now in our sixteenth year, the original 6 issues still hold their own. Included in Volume One is a complete set of plans for a "Modern Day Crystal Set," including pc layout and audio amplification. Why did the sets of the 1920's work anyway? Read about crystal sets and wireless from 1905-1928 and a barebones crystal set, compact! Learn how to match your antenna and set for maximum signal reception. Volume II includes, The Lead Pencil Detector! What's the minimum detectable signal? Information on detector biasing for improved sensitivity. Double-tuned circuit crystal sets. The Universal Crystal Set. FM crystal sets? The electrolytic detector. The coherer revisited. The Miller '595' Tuner revisted.

Volume I and II of the Society Newsletter
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Price: $21.95

Volumes IV & V of the Society Newsletter

This book contains 15 articles from the 1994-95 Xtal Set Society Newsletters. Topics include hints on measuring coil capacitance, two building projects using Quaker Oats boxes, broadcast and short-wave notes, how to make home-brew headphones and curve tracers, how crystal earphones work, a 400 foot vertical (!), notching out shortwave stations, the Marconi Type 107-A tuner, a description and schematic of 10 crystal sets, and more.

Volume IV & V of the Society Newsletter
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Price: $12.95

Crystal Set Building & More, Vols 6,7

Comb bound in 8.5 by 11 format. Great titles in this compendum of volumes 6 & 7: An FM Xtal Set, A Crystal Set Headphone from a Cat Food can, The Den Two Crystal Set, From Crystal Set to Superhete, The Simple TRF Set, Flame Detector, The Foxhole Set, TRF Receiver using the ZN414, WWII Underground Xtal Radio, Capacitance of the Parallel Plate Capacitor, How to Make a Double Crystal Receiver, A J-FET Shortwave Regenerative Receiver, The Cigar Box Set, A Capacitive Transducer Receiver, Grid Lean Detector One-Tube, and correspondence tibbits.

Crystal Set Building & More, Vols 6,7
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Price: $12.95

Crystal Set Loopers, a 3 Tuber & More, Vol 8

The best volume yet! Build a shortwave looper, Mike's "Super Duper AM/SW 3 Tuber," an antenna tuner/AM trap, a loop with a new twist, a Frisbee crystal radio, a radio from a deodorant stick, a 1920's wave trap reproduction, and find many more fun building ideas. Learn about biasing effects on diode performance, variocouplers and variometers, and some molybdenite crystal detector experiments. Discover crystal set secrets by reading correspondence from our members all over the world. The Xtal Set Society Newsletter just keeps getting better and better every year. Volume 8 was a lot of fun!

Crystal Set Loopers, a 3 Tuber & More, Vol 8
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Price: $15.95

The Crystal Set Bonanza: Vols 9,10,11

You’ll find 20 complete projects in this great Crystal Radio book! Each project has step-by-step instructions, parts lists, photos and schematics. Build a simple radio from a closet rod, or a more complicated TRF, 1-Tube Radio. Also included are projects modeled after old radio articles, like the Radio in a Greeting card that you make a and then mail it to your radio friends. Many of the projects have templates for coil forms and front panels. You’ll find plans for Gilligan’s Radio to make a receiver out of stuff around the house such as tin foil, mailing tubes, and wire! Included are simple projects that are fun to build with kids, like the little radio based on the “Knight” kits from the 1950’s Allied Radio kits. In addition there are increasingly harder projects for those wanting to build more complicated sets including circuits with series/parallel antenna tuning, full broadcast band tuning, and a tuneable wavetrap. There are projects based on Alfred P. Morgans 1918 book, “The Boys First Book of Radio and Electronics,” along with more advanced sets like the AM Loose Coupler that was used by the Navy in the early days. You’ll also find other articles showing how to build radio components like capacitors out of modern CD’s and headphones out of shoe polish cans. Build a big loop antenna around your doorway like they did in WWII to hide their radios from the authorities...also learn how to fix up those old antique headphones you bought. All these projects were originally seen in our newsletter volumes 9, 10, and 11, so whatever level you are at you’ll find more than a few projects to keep you busy! Get a copy today! 8 ½ x 11 paperback, 226 pgs Cat# XV11 $14.95

The Crystal Set Bonanza: Vols 9,10,11
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Price: $14.95

Crystal Radio Projects from Newsletter Vols 12 & 13

You’ll want to see the many wonderful pictures of in-process and completed sets, including Dan’s “Modern Morgan,” featured on the cover, and Mike’s version of the famous “Oat Box Crystal Set.” Here’s just a taste of the articles, subjects, and projects included: a regenerative receiver, receiving condensers, a band-pass loop stick radio, a short-wave crystal set, “Build Your Own Cats Whisker Detector,” “Doing the Doerle,” a super selective set, “Queen Rebecca’s Got a New Loopy-Loop,” “A CD-ROM Radio,” developing an inductance formula for the spiral wound square loops, and more. One aspect of being a crystal radio hobbyist is making radios from things simply lying around the house. Alex Jueschke’s article, “Quality Headset from a Magnet, a Relay, and a Can of Peanuts,” described on pages 60-61, nicely represents this part of the hobby. 8-1/2 by 11 inches, 135 pages, perfect bound, $15.95

Once again society members bring you ideas and instructions for a variety of crystal radio projects. this book contains projects and theory including: The Magic Reynolds Wrap Attic Antenna and instructions for building your own basket weave mandrel. The secret life a detectors is revealed by John Davidson's seminal article presented here with parts 1 and 2 together. 8-1/2 by 11, Comb bound. $12.95

Just when you thought the projects were over, here's a new batch. Again society members bring you ideas and instructions for a variety of crystal radio projects. These are gathered from the 2006 & 2007 newsletters! H.P. Friedrichs introduces his "Tea Time" Headphones (constructed in a pair of little tea boxes). There's a variable-coupled basket weave coil, Dan's Fruit of the Loom Set (a basket of Litz of course), Mike's 1-Tube Low Voltage DXer Set (3Q4), stuff about Toroids, Patron's Modern Armstrong Regen RX, stuff on detection, Spider coils from Dan, the Xtal High Voltage Contest Entry winner, a calibrated capacitor, Phil's Crazy-L Attic Antenna, Alex Jueschke's homebrew loopstick coils (from magnet ore sweepings), a rare picture of Joe Eisenberg of Nebrasks ( ! ), another regen rig, Phil's crazy AM Chopper Modulator, a sampling of member correspondence, and more!

8-1/2 by 11, 100 pages, Comb bound. $15.95

Crystal Radio: From Galena to Litz, vols 16-17.
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Price: $15.95

Crystal Set Society Newsletter Volume 18 and 19

Learn about using audio transformers from Phil, building a basic grid leak from Dan,and how to build a homemade flame triode from Nyle Steiner. These ideas and many others are from the 2008-2009 newsletters. In the 2009 section, you will see Dan’s one-FET set, and an antenna tuner for your crystal radio. Dennis Baker shows us a radio on a stick. 8 ½ by 11 with 118 pages, Comb Bound. XV19 $16.95.

Crystal Set Society Newsletter Volume 18 - 19
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Price: $16.95

Antennas, Tubes and Regeneration, Volumes 20 and 21

This edition marks 20 years of the Crystal Set Society. Many thanks to all our members for twenty years of fun with radio.

The compilation includes the articles from the 2010 and 2011 newsletters, including: Fun With Homebrew Cuprous Oxide Diodes; Resistance of Hardboard; The Telefunken Crystal Set; Two Popular AM Loop Antennas; Diode Biasing; Ultrasound Pressure of a Weak Spark; The Old Timer - Regeneration; The Antenna Tutorial I, II & III; Crystal Radios Are Like Beer; A Trap Antenna; Simple Circuits for Quality Sound; Audio Regeneration; Powered by Fleming's Amazing Valve; Two JFET Crystal Sets, From the Mailbox of Prof Verruckt, The AM Antenna Tuner Kit, and more.

8-½ by 11 with 115 pages, Comb Bound.

Vol 20-21, $16.95.

Antennas, Tubes and Regeneration, Volume 20 - 21
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Price: $16.95

Crystal Radio: History, Fundamentals & Deign

This book was written by a long-time member of the Xtal Set Society, Mr. Phil Kinzie. It chronicles the fascinating history and development of the crystal detector, including the reasons for its brief dominance of the radio market after the turn of the century. Starting with the discovery of solid-state rectification and then through the development of the crystal detector the reader learns about great inventors such as Pickard, Braun, Dunwoody, and others. Radio fundamentals such as antennas, ground, lightning protection, tuned circuits, and detection are covered for the beginner. The unending compromise between selectivity and sensitivity is discussed for the crystal set designer. Advanced topics such as the use of multi-tuned circuits and wave traps follow for the serious experimenter. Great background for any crystal radio enthusiast.

Crystal Radio: History, Fundamentals & Design
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Price: $12.95

An Introduction to Amateur Radio Astronomy, by Phil Anderson, WØXI, April 2012.

The basics of crystal sets and radio telescopes have much in common. Phil has written a series of beginner articles on radio astronomy, culminating in a presentation at Ozarkcon 2012 (4SQRP), April 14th, in Branson, MO. The articles include: An Introduction to Radio Astronomy summarizing Grote Reber's work, Earth and Sky Coordinate Systems, Basics For Our First Radio Telescope, Noise and A Tuned Radio Frequency Telescope, The Square Law Detector, The DC-Amplifier, and Summing Up, totaling 50 pages.

Intro Amateur Radio Astonomy
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Price: $9.95

The Voice of the Crystal: How to Build Working Radio Receiver Components Entirely from Scratch
by H. Peter Friedrichs.

Crystal radio construction often means purchasing electronic components. Not anymore with this super new Xtal book! When we received our review copy here at the XSS we were pleasantly surprised. Peter, an XSS member, has been secretly building xtal sets parts in his basement…unbeknown to those around him or any of the XSS gurus. He now reveals his secret life with this book how to construct all of the parts from scratch. Everything had to be totally hand built, without special tools or materials and using technology that would be consistent with the early days of radio. Basic theory and analysis is combined with dozens of examples of historical practice, work by contemporary experimenters, and construction details. Inside are plans for 3 different homemade headphones, including one fabricated from cigarette lighter parts. Also included are detectors, fixed capacitors, and a rotary variable condenser. Plus there are coil plans for single layer, spider web, baskets, and a precision double-slider. Throughout, the author shares his thinking and practical experience, and includes over 120 photos and hand-prepared illustrations. Superbly written, and just plain fun to read.

The Voice of the Crystal
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Price: $14.95

PAGER HANDBOOK for the Radio Amateurby Phil Anderson,WØXI

Pager Handbook for the Radio Amateur, by Philip N. Anderson, WØXI. The purpose of this handbook is to introduce paging technology to the radio amateur. It describes the Radiopaging Code No. 1, also known as POCSAG, investigates the inner guts of a typical pager - both the FM receiver board and the decoder board, suggests where to purchase pagers for amateur use, outlines procedures for recrystalling pagers for 2-meter and 70-cm use, describes how to set up an amateur station for paging. If you want to learn how to assemble and operate an amateur radio paging station, this book is a must read (Copyright 1996).

Pager Handbook for the Radio Amateur
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Price: $9.95

Instruments of Amplificationby H.P. Friedrichs

Are you interested in building sensitive audio amplifiers from magnets, a shoe-polish tin and a couple of carbon rods? How about a working triode vacuum tube built from candle holders and old glass ashtrays? Perhaps you'd like to construct your own transistor from plumber's fittings, glass beads and a tiny crystal. If so, you've come to the right place. Instruments of Amplification, written and illustrated by H.P. Friedrichs, is jam-packed with nearly 300 pages of history, science background, basic theory, and hard-to-find hands-on details pertaining to the construction of an amazing array of homebrew amplifying devises. Rooted in the same "build-it-from-scratch" philosophy that made his first book, Voice of the Crystal, a success, Instruments of Amplification reduces complex devises to their essential elements and then shows how they can be constructed from commonly available materials. 8 1/2 X 5 1/2 paperback, 297 pgs. FIA $19.95